Blog #2 A Fiesta in the Bronx !!!!

Fiesta is a short story of a boy who is thinking about all of the negativity in his life in one night that is supposed to be a joyful one. The narrator, Yunior gives his viewpoint on the night that his family leaves their home in New Jersey to go to the Bronx to a relatives’ new apartment .Diaz creates beautiful imagery about that night when he includes intricate details of the events that take place throughout the night.
In such a short story Diaz manages to mention many things that go wrong or can go wrong in that one night; he gets sick every time he is in the car, he is afraid of his father, his father is having an affair, his tia is nosy, he is threatened and not allowed to eat and lastly, he thinks about the Puerto Rican women constantly. Not only does this story focus on infidelity but it also focuses on a Latino male dominant family. Without actually saying it we know that Yunior is not Puerto Rican because he constantly calls the women that his father is having an affair with “Puerto Rican”. He always says, the Puerto Rican woman with such negativity. It seems he is afraid that his mother will find out about it. He seems to be more afraid that his mother finds out because he is afraid of the disappointment that she will feel when she finds out that he knew and didn’t tell her.
He was so consumed with the issue of infidelity and the affect that it would have on his mother. He was worried about the things that she did before she met his father and he thought about how she would be without him when he decided to finally leave her for his, “Puerto Rican sucio.” Although he is afraid of his father he makes it obvious that he would not want his parents to ever be apart. At the end of the story he says, “I saw that Papi had a hand on Mami’s knee and that the two of them were quiet and still.” There is so much tranquility in this sentence. It is “the calm after the storm” Yunior gets every child’s wish when he sees his father making contact with his mother in a peaceful way. His father, a verbally and physically abusive man doesn’t seem like he has it in him to be a gentle soul but he proves it when he has a hand on his wife’s knee.

Yunior is able to depict his father in a good and bad light, especially when Yunior describes the many different faces of his father. When we first meet Yunior and his family he refers to his father as, “my father the torturer” and then he goes on to talk about him being calm and cracking jokes in the car. Yunior is a typical child where he hates him father one minute and dislikes him the next; particularly when his father threatens him not to eat at the fiesta he tells his cousin, “he’s a dick.” Diaz creates Yunior as a relatable character. He has a love hate relationship with his father something that most children have with their parents, especially when they disagree with something. Yunior calls his father a “dick” only because he couldn’t get his way I don’t think that he meant what he said because in a way he respects his father because when his tia pulls him aside to question the dealings in his household he doesn’t tell her anything. He thinks to himself, “ Don’t get me wrong, I loved my tia, but something told me to keep my mouth shut” He had loyalty to his family and thought that their household dealings should be their own.


Diaz portrays Yunior as an innocent young boy that anyone can relate to in some way. He focuses on his how much his father’s infidelity to his mother is affecting him and his everyday life. Hs relation with his father is not as close as it should be because the father is constantly fighting with the family. Diaz uses an enormous amount of description to help the reader better understand this family.